Bilton's Byte

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Recommended: How will be the technology in the near future essay

In I live in The Future & Here’s How It Works, Nick Bilton effectively explains how new technologies are shaping our future; Bilton effectively points out some of the advantages and possible future uses of technology. He successfully shows how technology is evolving to better serve the “me” centric consumer and does a good job of pointing out Web 2.0’s many benefits for its users. However, Bilton understates the adverse effects of the Internet and multitasking on the brain; which is to say that he downplays how the way we learn, comprehend and remember are being disrupted. When Bilton states that “‘Internet searching appears more stimulating than reading’” he implies that more stimulating is better, which is misleading because a brain being more stimulated does not mean that it learns, comprehends or retains more.

In The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains Nicholas Carr writes that when it comes to firing neurons more isn’t always better (Carr 123). When Bilton cites studies showing more brain activity present during reading online than linear reading, he concludes that Internet readers showed twice as much stimulation; this may be misunderstood to mean that the brain benefited more from reading online. In this context the word “stimulation” can create confusion. Neurologically, when we speak about “stimulation” we refer to the neurons that are actively engaged; in an MRI these parts light up when scanned and so can be measured. In neurology it is a mistake to think that more “stimulation” is better as it is not a measurement of learning. Actually, it is the Internet’s very stimulation that distracts. According to Carr the extra burden of decision-making that hypertext demands of readers impairs reading performanc...

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...lnesses has yet to be seen. In the mean time, an understanding of how the Internet affects our minds could lead to a minimizing of its damage. At the very least people who read online or opt to buy an e-book version of their favorite paperback should be aware of the tradeoffs that they are making. Perhaps e-readers could come with warning labels like ‘warning: reading on this device may cause hypertextism’ or ‘warning: reading on this device may make you a bad listener at dinner parties’ so that at least people could know what they’re sacrificing when they read Crime and Punishment on their iPads. Of course the Internet has made that much less of a problem because very few people now have the concentration and patience necessary to read and understand a Dostoevsky novel; at least people of my mother’s generation felt embarrassed enough to lie and say that they did.

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